How Much Weight Should I Lift to Improve Bone Density?
If you have osteoporosis I have some good news for you. As you know, age brings natural challenges to bone health, especially for post menopausal women. Your body experiences a gradual decline in muscle mass, your body starts to hurt more, you start to move less and together these all directly lead to bone loss. But here is the good news: although both men and women naturally start to lose our bone mass sometime in our 30s, your body maintains its adaptability throughout your lifetime. Your bones never lose their ability to respond positively to physical stress, regardless of your age. Whether you begin strength training in your 20s or your sixties, your bones will respond to the beneficial stress of resistance training.
In other words, you can improve bone density at any age.
Regular strength training serves as a powerful tool for protecting and building your bone density at any age.
But here is the challenge, lift too much and you risk getting hurt, lift to little and you won’t get results. So how much should you lift? I’ll tell you, but let me explain what activities you should be doing in the first place.
Key Bone Building Activities
The key to an exercise being bone building or not bone building is whether it is weight bearing or not. A weight bearing exercise simply requires you to support and move your body against the pull of gravity. They involve activities that load your bones and muscles, promoting strength, endurance, and bone density. These exercises can be further categorized into two types: high-impact and low-impact.
High vs Low Impact Weight Bearing Exercises
Examples of high impact weight bearing exercises would be jogging, jumping, dancing etc. Examples of low impact weight bearing exercises would be walking and strength training. And as you might imagine, the greater the impact and the greater the resistance or pull on the bone, the greater the bone building.
Non-Weight Bearing Exercises
Whereas non-weight bearing exercises are activities where your body is not supporting its full weight. These exercises are often recommended for individuals with certain physical limitations, as they reduce the stress on joints and bones.
Examples of non-weight bearing exercises are things like swimming, cycling, rowing, yoga and pilates. These are all great exercises but are not going to be beneficial when it comes to building up bone density.
How Much of Each Activity Should You Do?
When it comes to high impact weight bearing exercise and resistance training it is important to start with a baseline before moving up. This simply means, find out what you can do comfortably and slowly start to progress.
In the case of walking, determine how far you can comfortably walk, and at what pace and slowly start to increase your pace and your distance over time. The faster you go, the greater your impact on the earth and the more you will build your bone density. How far you should walk, how often and how fast is going to be different for everyone but walking is an activity that should be repeatable and so if you end up being so sore from your walk that you can’t do it the next day, chances are you went too far, too soon.
In the case of resistance training, again start with a baseline of some key movements. Find the weight that you can comfortably squat, press and pull (row and lat pulldown) about 15 times and each week add about 5% to your upper body weights and 10% to your lower body weights. Once you get to a weight that you can’t move more than 5-10 times you have found your bone building weight. Repeat at least two up to five sets per workout and then repeat that same exercise one other time that week. Unlike walking, resistance training should be hard enough that your body needs a break from that particular exercise for a few days, which means 2 – 3 resistance training sessions per week should be enough!
What Resistance Training Exercises Should You Do?
It’s important to note that resistance training exercises are site-specific. They only increase muscle and bone mass density in areas the exercises stimulate and so you will want to ensure you work all your muscles, but especially those most prone to osteoporosis, which is your spine, your hips, and your femur.
Remember! Muscle strengthening exercises are exercises where your muscles work against resistance using high effort – it should feel like hard work!
You should:
- Start with using your own body weight against gravity, and progress to using elastic bands or weights for resistance
- Include exercises for muscles that control movement of your spine and shoulders to improve your posture
A basic muscle strengthening exercise program can include:
- Squat, lunge/step up, hinge, or bridge exercises to improve leg strength
- Push, pull, and press exercises for upper body and shoulder muscles, such as pull downs, rows, and counter or floor push-ups
- Planks, side planks, and bird dog exercises to target abdominal and back extensor muscles and to improve posture
In conclusion:
Your baseline is your starting point and gradual progression is key to prevent stress fractures during weight bearing exercises and avoids unnecessary sprains and strains when lifting weights. This is essential if you already have osteoporosis.
Also, as much as we want strong bones so we don’t end up fracturing one when we fall, the other best bet is to not fall in the first place so practicing balance training two or more times per week is essential as we start to get older. This includes exercises that test our functionality like sit to stands or climbing stairs.
If you need have osteoporosis or want to prevent it but are still not sure where to start, give us a call! We are the experts in Personal Training for mature bodies in Burlington!
